The Federal Government has reduced the pump price of premium motor spirit otherwise known as petrol from N168 per litre to N162.44 per litre effective from December 14, 2020.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige told newsmen at the end of a meeting with labour leaders which began at 9 pm on Monday and ended at 1:30 am on Tuesday, according to The Nation.

Ngige said: “Our discussion was fruitful and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is the major importer and marketers of petroleum products and customers have agreed that there will be a slide down, of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre and that the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week today.”

Ngige, however, said the price reduction is not meant to suspend deregulation because it did not affect the price of crude oil but on areas where the NNPC as the main importer has agreed that it cut costs like freight cost and demurrage.

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He said that the new price slash was a product of a joint committee of NNPC and labour representatives who looked into ways of cutting costs.

The product presently sells at N168, following the decision of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Federal Government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to increase the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 per litre in November.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.

The minister said a technical committee has been set up by the larger house to ensure price stability in the industry.

On the aspect of electricity tariff, both sides agreed to wait till next meeting date of January 25 to enable the special committee dealing with complaints to conclude their deliberations.